Welcome to the Family
by risenfromash
Summary: Post AJ- Apollo joins the Wrights and learns that he doesn't know the whole fam. MAJOR SPOILERS for AJ i just needed to add the note that I messed up and called this complete and there is more...maybe ill do it as a sequeal


After Kristoph Gavin was incarcerated I was left unemployed and despite the fact that Trucy and I had brought the truth to light in not only the death of Mr. Mesekir, doctor to the organized crime family the Kitakis, but also the hit-and-run involving Mr. Wright and the panty-snatching crime wave I was still too broke to pay my rent. Since I was facing eviction and jobless, Mr. Wright had invited me to join him and Trucy in living at the office of the Wright Anything Agency and running my law services out of it. He told me to not consider it charity but my payment for catching the driver who hit him with their car.

I suppose that at one time Phoenix had had a separate apartment, but at one time the Wright Anything Agency had been a prestigious and bustling law firm and those days were long over. The office was now a talent agency with only two clients, him and Trucy and a heapload of stuff. It had a main room, which we would use as the headquarters of both businesses, a kitchenette in the hallway, a bathroom with a shower, and bedrooms or so I was told. So I packed up the few possessions I had in my backpack and bike basket and pedaled on over.

I would like to say I was surprised when I discovered my "room", but honestly I wasn't. The room was in actuality half an adjoining office split in half by cubicle walls and draperies hung form the ceiling. Apparently, I was moving into half of Trucy's room.

"Well, so much for privacy," I thought. Not that I'm not used to it. As a kid, I went through so many foster homes and even one old-fashioned orphanage that I think I could sleep anywhere and the Wrights had been nice enough to create a kind of hallway in the space so Trucy didn't have to tromp through my half of the room to get out.

The truth of the matter was I didn't have a lot of time to worry about our living arrangements or much else as my next few cases kept me plenty busy after Gavin's arrest. Other than the Gavinners concert-, which other than Lamiror's amazing performance would have been a horrible enough experience without the accompanying murder-, I didn't have a lot of free time. It was pretty much chords of steel, investigate, and defend and I was lucky when my clients spoke my language.

So, it wasn't until after Phoenix's name was cleared that I really had any time to set up housekeeping. He had insisted that we paint the law firm's name, the "Justice Defense Company" above the "Wright Anything Agency" sign.

So it was that Trucy and I were trying to organize the mess that was the Wright's office when I first found out about Maya.

"Polly, you can't throw that away!" Trucy shouted dashing over to pull a ripped deck of playing cards from my hand. "I use those at the Wonder Bar." Trucy performed magic at the Wonder Bar and I was ashamed to admit I hadn't gone and seen her act yet. It made me feel like a bad friend but even now there had been a lot going on.

"Sorry! What about this? You don't really need this do you?" I had found what appeared to be the head of a ventriloquist's dummy glued to something that resembled a napkin holder. "Of course, I do! Put it in there," she said pointing to an overflowing box that to any normal person would have appeared to be junk.

"Trucy, you do understand what we're trying to do here right?" She sighed, " I know, I know. It would have been horrible if that client who tripped on the hula hoop had sued, but they didn't and there is plenty of space in my room for this stuff." I didn't believe her. If there had been room in there I was sure this stuff would already have been in there, not to mention the fact she had actually shrunk the size of her room considerably so I would have a place to stay.

"Here take this stuff and put it in Daddy's room." Mr. Wright was on another one of his "secret missions" and had been for some time. I might have considered suing him for forcing me to act as Trucy's nanny, if I hadn't liked her and her company so much. In fact, I liked both her and Phoenix a lot despite their eccentricities. The Wrights were like the family I never had Trucy in particular. When she got on my nerves I could totally imagine what having a pesky younger sister would be like. I mentioned this to Phoenix once and he just chuckled and got a dreamy look in his eyes.

The enormous box Trucy handed me to take to Mr. Wright's room appeared to contain some old letters, overdue final notice bills, some newspaper clippings, a couple of t-shirts and a half eaten chocolate bar. Apparently all this was junk that Phoenix had left in the main room we used as our living room and office. I trudged into the hallway and opened the door to Phoenix's room. In all the time I had lived here I had never been in it and I was shocked to find it was obviously meant to be a utility closet or storage room. The room had no windows and probably no heating or cooling as I noticed a large space heater and box fan leaning against the wall. The walls themselves were almost entirely covered with photos. There were snapshots of people and interesting places, and even photos of mundane things like hamburgers. The only furniture in the room was a twin bed and a little nightstand. The tiny room was littered with piles of DVDs, books, letters, and clothes.

It was obvious to me at that moment how much Phoenix must love his daughter. I could just imagine him moving into this tiny room so little 7 year-old Trucy could have the big one. The floor was so cluttered I set the box on the bed and it was then that I noticed the sheets on his disheveled bed. They were Pink Princess themes bed sheets and there was a matching pillowcase. On the bedside table there was a framed photo of a more child-like Trucy. The frame next to it was heart shaped and had a picture of a dark haired woman with her hands clasped together in front of her with a look of pure glee upon her face. As I stepped back and glanced around the room I realized that she was in a lot of other photos especially ones with a little girl. Both she and the younger girl wore the same odd clothing kind of like robes with pearls at their neck. There were even a few pictures of them with Phoenix and they looked close like a family.

"Investigating?" Trucy had snuck up behind me without me realizing it; being a magician she is pretty good at that. "Daddy likes his privacy, but I guess I can tell you what you want to know. She's a friend of Daddy's. Pearls calls her his "special someone"."

"Who's Pearls?" I asked.

"Oh, she's my cousin. Well not really- really she's Maya's cousin, but that's close enough. That's her there," Trucy pointed to the adorable brown haired little girl with enormous eyes. "Well, that was her when she was younger…"

I was surprised how much it hurt me that this was the first I had heard of these people who were obviously so important to the Wrights. Here I was thinking we were a family and I didn't even know everybody.

"Maya Fey is the younger sister of Mia Fey, Daddy's old law partner. When Mia was killed Maya got accused of the murder and after Daddy proved she was innocent she came to work as his assistant. They're close."

"I gathered that" I said glancing at the heart shaped frame.

"Yeah, I don't think he likes the Steel Samurai nearly as much as she does, but it reminds him of her. They're always talking about it on the phone." I had never even seen Mr. Wright talk on his phone.

"The Pink Princess sheets?"

"Something to remember her by."

My stomach lurched. I had just had an image I did not want to have. I must have grimaced either that or Trucy's uncanny ability to perceive things had caught my disgust as she jumped in, "Oh, it's not like that! I'm sure they aren't doing stuff like that!"

At that moment I turned on her, "What do you mean by that!?! They're together right now? You mean all these "secret missions" are really lover's rendezvous? I can't believe this…"

"No, no they're best friends it isn't like that. I mean not yet anyways. I mean…I think it's more…complicated."

"Complicated?! Her picture's in a heart shaped frame for gosh sake!"

"Pearls did that- she's been convinced since she was tiny that they are destined to be together. I think Daddy didn't want to disappoint her by changing the frame."

I was still mad. Why did he have to keep me in the dark about so much? What did I care if he had a girlfriend- why'd he have to be so secretive all the time? He could have told me he was going to spend time with his girlfriend- I wouldn't have cared.

"Polly, you look upset. Surely, you've heard how Daddy and his assistant solved all those cases together and how Daddy risked his life to save her from a fire. I thought you knew."

I had to admit I remember hearing stories of Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright and his amazing assistant who helped him on all his investigations. I had just thought that person was Ema. Now it made more sense.

"Daddy doesn't like to talk too much about her. It's hard for him- he misses her a lot. She lives two hours away and she travels a lot and he doesn't want to make me feel bad."

"Why would you feel bad?"

"Well, if I hadn't come along he probably would have admitted his feelings for her by now and-"

"What!?! He hasn't even told her?"

"I don't think so- I mean, I guess I don't really know, but they only hold hands and kiss on the cheek and then she turns red and then he turns red and-"

"I get the picture! So in seven years he couldn't admit his feelings for her?" It was hard for me to believe Maya wouldn't already know. I'd been in his room like 30 seconds before I figured it out and it hadn't taken any scientific investigation tools.

"More than that actually, because they were working together right after Mia was killed. That was really early in Daddy's career."

All of a sudden I felt like I understood the man. I had felt sorry for him, being disbarred and barely scraping by, but now I realized the real sorrow in his life was his distance from the woman he loved…

As we cleaned up the office more Trucy filled me in on Mystic Maya's religion and her occupation running the sacred order in Kurain. It seemed to Trucy that Phoenix had intended to propose to Maya at some point, but being an old-fashioned kind of guy he felt he should have a job and something to show for himself first. "...and he didn't have a job or career anymore and he suddenly had a kid."

"But I thought Maya loved you."

"Oh, yeah we get along great. She's hilarious. You'll just love her- I would love for her to marry Daddy. But Daddy's almost as bad at love as he is at piano playing." She crinkled her face. "He goes and visits her when he can, but he usually doesn't have money for the train and they're both very dedicated to their careers."

I wasn't so sure that Mr. Wright was as dedicated as Trucy believed; after all he had never even taken piano lessons. There wasn't even a piano in the office anywhere.

"If you like her so much why don't you quit making those comments to him about finding you a new mommy?"

"Well, I figure that if I get him out on some dates with other people he'll realize how he much he really loves Maya and he'll take the train to Kurain and be with her forever." Trucy's eyes had filled with the same wistful look she got in her eyes when she watched sappy romance movies. Not that I ever watch the sappy romances with her- I've just noticed from across the room…


End file.
